In disposing of my parents’ assets, I have come across some old, rare coins. I’ve looked them up and one, for instance, has a value of between $2500 - $78,000. So – much scope for someone to take advantage of someone like me, who knows nothing of old coins.
Hive mind, does anyone here have any expertise, or have you gone through this?where do I even go to get them valued? And if the decision is to sell, how to get the best price.
Hoping against hope someday knows something!
Following, as we’re in a similar position… although helping my mom with purging in preparation for downsizing in a few years. We had no idea my dad had valuable coins in his collection until we randomly checked a few online. We are similarly uneducated on this market.
I did receive one name and number from a friend who is handling his parents’ estate. I’ll PM you because he has not contacted this vendor yet so I do not consider this a referral. Just maybe a starting point for comparison.
I don’t know anything about coins, but have used resources from Matt Paxton/Legacy List to help me decide what to do with things from my parents’ estate. For coins, they list coin shops, jewelers, and pawnshops that specialize in coins:
https://www.mylegacylist.com/book/items
We struggled with that too. We ended up putting them in the safety deposit box and are just hanging on to them. We couldn’t get a firm estimate either and aren’t sure where to go to get them honestly appraised.
Ha ha, that was today’s realization: get them into a safety deposit box asap!!
Google says coin shows with a lot of dealers is where to go to get them valued, but I’m not confident/comfortable with that at this point.
All I can warn about is if you show them to collectors, dealers, keep your eye on them. Not everyone is trustworthy and some will supposedly swap out for a less valuable version. This all according to my dad who was an avid collector. Sis inherited his collection, so I have no experience myself.
If I had had to deal with it I’d have likely gone to an auctioneer who regularly dealt with coins.
I hadn’t considered a coin show. And would rather not have to do that… and the more people post the more uncomfortable I get.
We have two safety deposit boxes full… as of six months ago when we discovered there was some value. They’d been in a map cabinet in my dad’s office for years. No lock. So we had no idea it was any more than a sentimental childhood hobby. And perhaps it wasn’t in his mind.
I was recently looking for coin dealers online because my husband has some rare coins and I found this site:
https://png.memberclicks.net/find-a-png-dealer
I put in my zip code and got a good-sized list of coin dealers. It was a good place to start, at least.
We have some old coins but they’re likely not worth much because they are mostly old quarters - some from my mom, and some we’ve had around for decades. I keep thinking I should sell them but then stop due to concerns noted above.
This is an interesting discussion:
Also, here’s a potential way to research dealers who are members of the American Numismatic Association:
Sent you a PM about an appraiser about whom I’ve heard good things (but have never used them myself, though).
Best of luck!
My H was really into coin collecting but sold off many of his coins. One tip would be to go to a few places before making ANY decision. Make yourself an excel sheet of what person said what about a coin.
I would second getting in touch with several good auction houses that specialize in coins. The American Numismatic Association could be a good place to get a list of auction houses. Maybe you could find old invoices for some of the coins to see where they were purchased. That might be a good place to start. I certainly would not go to a pawn shop. You might also join the ANA for a year. They might give good advice to heirs to help you. I certainly would not go to anyone who is not a member of the ANA.
My husband is a very active stamp collector. He has drawn up papers with our wills that list several auction houses that would be good places for our daughters to sell his collection. Those auction houses will send someone to the house to advise whether the collection is worth enough to go to auction. (My husband’s is.)
Thanks all! I am pretty sure my great Aunt bought these in the 1920’s as a hedge against inflation (she was in Europe after WWI). And my parents just held onto them.
Related to a few coin collectors.
These folks are the top of the heap:
I was told (by a relative, not by a staff person) that you can take photos (both sides) and while they can’t give you a valuation based on a photo, they will be able to tell you if you are looking at a nice collection which a local dealer can handle, or if you have something TRULY valuable (like at the top of the range you stated) where it might make sense to talk to a bigger dealer.
Ooh this is just what I was hoping to learn, thank you!
Fingers crossed for you!
Add me & by proxy my D who are holding a small suitcase filled with coins - some are already noted with price paid (more than 20 years ago) & others with no information - she and I spent a weekend at the start of Covid days going through them with some online resources but quickly became overwhelmed & put them back in a closet.
I hate the thought of being taken advantage of simply because we don’t know anything about coins.
We have stamps too - my stepdad was a serious collector & had a large collection - 2 big boxes, many categorized - but again we’re both lost and really haven’t a clue how to begin.
H sold a bunch of old coins and stamps from his father through an auction house in NYC around 35 years ago. I know that he paid some commission on what sold at the time, but still got a fairly good amount of money as we used this as a down payment on our house.
I didn’t read all of the responses. The price ranges are totally dependent on the condition of the coin. For the coins that are worth a decent amount, you can and probably should get them professionally graded by NCG or PCGS (google them). The coins may already be in a plastic case and already graded by NCG or PCGS, and if so, there should be a fairly tight (around 10%) range in value for the coin that can be easily looked up online.
If you’re in southern New England, I can recommend a professional. Among other things, he’s been consulting the big-name auction houses.